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“Same shit all the time,” Joey flipped a pen between his fingers, “they want Madre’s but they don’t want to pay for Madre’s. Other floral shops that willingly give them regular donations? Get the hell out of here! No floral shop worth their salt would do that. All the time I get the exact same thing – you’ll be doing a great thing for the community! You’ll be giving more exposure to your brand! Yadda, yadda, yadda!” Joey made a jacking off hand motion and Eli chuckled. “I know when I’m being hustled, when we’re
all
being hustled. And I don’t care if it’s a pastor from a church or Joe Schmo from off the street. If you don’t want to pay full-price or a discounted price from us, you’re not getting our service. End of story.”

“Let the church say Amen!” Eli laughed.

“For real.” Joey shook his head. “Anyway, what’s your schedule today?”

“Five weddings this Saturday,” Eli flipped through the calendar on his phone. “I’m in the lab all day, man.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah.
Five.
All big productions as well. Three receptions are at the same hotel so that made it easier but the other two are clear across town. But it’ll be good. I need the distraction.”

The question was in the back of Joey’s mind and he decided to chance it. “Faye and Nate are good?”

“They’re good,” Eli slowly nodded. “Faye and I are on speaking terms and we’re actually getting along better now if that makes any sense.”

“Really?” Joey raised an eyebrow.

“Really,” Eli repeated. “Maybe me being stupid is what we needed.”

“The first step is admittance.” Joey countered.

“I know, right?”

“But hey,” Joey became serious again, “as long as my nephew is taken care of, I don’t care if you and Faye hate each other. I just don’t want Nate to go through what we all went through what we all went through, you hear me?”

“Yo, I’m not trying to go down
that
path.” Eli swore. He could remember the answer he gave to anyone who asked about his dad’s whereabouts.
He died.
It wasn’t a lie, per se; Giorgio was considered dead in everyone’s eyes. “Faye and Nate will be taken care of, no matter what.”

“That’s what I’m saying, bro.” A smile appeared on Joey’s face. “That’s all I care about.”

“Anyway, I need to get going.” Eli stood up and collected his designs. “Um, Art should be coming by soon to talk to you.”

“Art?” Joey questioned. What did his mother’s boyfriend need to talk to him about?

“That’s random.”

“It’s not, really.” Eli’s hazel eyes twinkled. “Just hear him out. We talked already a while ago so he’s just talking individually to each son.”

“Okay.” Joey casually shrugged. “I’ll talk to the man.”

“So…” Eli glanced over to his brother. “Did you see your new lady friend in Cali?”

Oh, Joey saw her all right. He explored every beautiful and taut inch of her body with his fingers and tongue. Her ass was definitely his favorite physical feature and he loved seeing it jiggle against him when he rode her doggystyle.

“Fuck me, Joey.”

“Like this?” He crushed a hand against her ass.

“Ooh, yes, daddy.” Zoe reached down and began to rub her swollen clit in time with
Joey’s thrusts. “Just like that.”

Joey felt his slacks once again tighten around his crotch area. He blinked a few times to relieve his mind of the hot memory. “Yes, I did.”

“Well?” Eli pressed. “Anything happening? Nothing?”

“I don’t know yet,” he shrugged. “We have to see what happens.”

“Well, how do you feel about her?” Eli asked.

He loved her. Joey absolutely loved her. The others didn’t compare. No one did. His dream girl was across the country and Joey couldn’t help but to think of the irony of it. “I want to see where it goes before I get too caught up. It might be everything or it might be nothing.”

“If it were nothing, you wouldn’t be talking about ‘seeing it where it goes’, bro,” Eli chuckled, “I know you too well. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be trying to see her again.

Speaking of which, I can safely assume that K doesn’t know.”

“And you can safely assume he
won’t
know.” Joey replied.

Eli sucked his teeth. “You’re playing with fire, J. You know K looks at Zoe like a sister.”

“I’m not going to hurt her. We both know what’s at stake.” Joey replied. “K’s got nothing to worry about.”

“It’s not K I’m worried about,” Eli gathered his belongings and began to head out, “it’s you.”

****

She was out to lunch with her sister, but it was clear that Zoe’s mind was in New York.

She wanted to text him to see how his morning was. Did he have a lot of work to do? Was he insanely busy like she was?

That wasn’t the reason she wanted to talk to Joey. She wanted to know if he was thinking about her the same way she was thinking about him. If he truly cared or what he said was all for show so she could give him some. She wanted to know if he was planning to come out to L.A.

again or maybe she should start looking at flights to New York.

Most importantly, Zoe wanted to call and hear his voice in her ear, remembering how he murmured sweet Italian nothings as he drove his cock deeper into her, stretching her out and filling her up completely. Oh how tightly she wrapped around his cock and just the thought made her clit pulsate in desire.

“Zoe!”

London’s voice shook Zoe out of her thoughts. “Um, yeah? What’s up?”

“What’s up?” London had an amusing smile on her face. “I’ve been jibber jabbering about nothing and it’s clear your body is here but you’re not.” She sipped from the champagne flute.

“So what’s his name?”

“Oh no,” Zoe vehemently shook her head. She knew her sister and the big mouth attached to her. Their parents would know about Joey by the end of the hour along with several of their mutual friends. London was every type of social media wrapped up in a designer label package.

“No, no, no!”

“Oh come on, Zo! I’ve told you about all of my boyfriends!” London pleaded.

“All of your boyfriends?” Zoe smirked. “You only had three and married one of them.”

“And again, I was right! I told you about all of my boyfriends!” London smiled. “Oh come on, Zoe!” She held onto Zoe’s name as if she was begging like a child. “I promise I won’t tell!”

Zoe knew her sister was full of it but if she didn’t cave in to London’s demands, the begging will go on until she finally stopped. London could be more exhausting than the preschoolers Zoe dealt with on a daily basis. “There
might
be someone but it’s too soon to tell.”

“Oh my Goooooooooooood!” London squealed in delight, causing stares and chuckles

from nearby patrons. “What’s his name? What does he do? What does he look like? I also need a dick report!”

“Um…” Zoe immediately regretted even giving her sister even
that
much information.

“I’ve told you enough. It’s still really early and I just don’t want to give any detail unless I see something serious between us. Right now, we’re not at that point.”

“He may not be but you surely are,” London leaned back in her chair and licked her lips in juicy gossip delight.

“Enough,” Zoe stopped her sister’s harassment, despite how true it was. “I’ll let you know more details once I know more details. Right now, there’s nothing to say.”

“Okay, okay,” London dropped the conversation, “but you do know I will bug you all the time until you give me a little something more? I can’t just go on this alone.”

Zoe could relate. A week alone with Joey was simply not enough. “I hear you.”

Eighteen

“So, I heard you wanted to talk to me about something important?” Joey greeted Art in his office.

The older gentleman stopped by Madre’s and sat down in front of Joey’s desk. He briefly wiped his brow as he sat down in front of Joey. He felt awkward going to each brother and speaking with him privately but it was the only proper way he knew how to venture into the next step of his relationship with Nicola.

He was going to propose to her.

They had been dating for almost a year and they both hinted how they were tired of just being boyfriend and girlfriend. In fact, they hated the terms so much they refused to refer to each other in that manner. But Art didn’t just want to propose to Nicola without getting permission from her sons, who meant the world to her.

The sons were raised alone without a father, left to raise themselves and each other. Nicola hadn’t dated since Giorgio left her and never really expressed a desire to until Art kept pressing for a date when he met her at Madre’s to discussion floral arrangements for a police function.

Now he wanted to make her his wife.

“With your blessing and
only
your blessing, I would like to ask for your permission for your mother’s hand in marriage.” Art gently broke the news to Joey.

A proud smile spread on Joey’s face and he nearly jumped out of his chair. “Hell yeah, I give you my blessing!” He finally got up and walked over to Art, embracing in a long hug. “I didn’t even doubt for a moment you’re great for my mom.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” Art smiled. “I’ve been asking all of the brothers for their blessing and I wasn’t going to propose to your mom if one brother objected. I know how much she means to you all and everything she has done.”

“We all just want Ma to be happy, that’s all.” Joey said with a proud smile on his face.

“Have you picked out a ring for her yet?”

“Actually I wanted to talk to you about that. One of Tony’s frat brothers owns a jewelry shop just a few miles away. Do you have any recommendations?”

“I think I have an idea,” Joey slowly nodded as he thought about his mother’s taste in jewelry. She never wore a lot of jewelry but when she did, it was very high-priced and expensive, though she occasionally wore pieces from Target. Her philosophy was if it looked good on her, it didn’t matter if it cost five dollars or five hundred dollars. “If you have some free time, we can go there now and you can take a look.”

“Sure, I would love that. Nick said he would meet us there pending your approval of the engagement.” Art replied. “Did you want take my car or yours?”

“I drive,” Joey grabbed his keys, “if you drive and I’m in the passenger seat, people are going to think you arrested me for something.”

Art chuckled. “Oh yeah, I forgot your reputation.”

“It’s one I like to keep.”

****

he entered the jewelry store.

“My brother, my brother!” Joey hugged his close friend back. “Long time, no see.”

“Well, I’m not a COO of a corporation like you, my brother. I only have this rinky-dink hole in the wall jewelry store that bares my name,” Ethan shrugged.

“Whatever,” Joey rolled his eyes and shook his head in jest. “Ethan, I’m sure you’re familiar with the Commissioner, Arturo Rodriguez.”

“Commissioner,” Ethan shook Art’s hand, “pleasure to see you here, sir. How can I assist you today?”

“I’m getting ready to propose to their mother and I need some assistance. Tony said you had the best jewelry in town and well, I have no reason to doubt him.”

Ethan stood back for a moment and rubbed his goatee. “The big plunge, huh? Well, you couldn’t have picked a finer woman than Nicola D’Amato, sir. Do you know what she likes?”

“Actually, I do,” Art pulled out a piece of paper with notes he had written, taking advice from Kieran. “A three-stone ring. Flawless.”

“Ah, perfect selection. Just follow me over here.” Ethan directed.

A sudden pang in Joey’s heart held him back from following Art. It was already in the middle of the day and he was craving to hear from Zoe. “I’ll be right over there. I need to handle this business first.”

Joey stepped away and checked his messages. Not a single text from Zoe. His past girls would’ve blown up his phone already with no less than a dozen text messages by noon.

It was currently three o’clock New York time.

Joey thought about how badly he wanted to be the first one to make contact. He spoke with Zoe briefly when he arrived home but jetlag took over and made the conversation brief. Now he was itching to have some type of communication with her.

No, he wouldn’t make the first move. That wasn’t how he did things, no matter how much he was feeling a girl. She would have to be the first one if she had any interest. Zoe was different from the others, however, and she knew Joey well enough to know that two could play at that game he perfected.

She won’t call so I’ll make her call.
Joey quickly placed an order online. A confident smile curved his lips and he felt accomplished.
Gotcha.

“Did you need help, sir?” A saleslady approached Joey.

“Um…” Joey put his phone away and pretended to look at the jewelry pieces in front of him. Nothing outright grabbed his attention until one – a sparkling diamond tennis bracelet.

“That. I want to see that.”

“Sure thing,” the saleslady opened up the cabinet and pulled out the tennis bracelet, “is this what you were looking for?”

It was stunning. Absolutely beautiful. Joey already imagined how dainty it would look on Zoe’s wrist. “I’ll take it.”

“Joseph,” Nick’s voice appeared from behind, “well, well, well…what do we have here?”

Joey grumbled a little as he paid for the bracelet. He loved Nick but sometimes his oldest brother could be a pain in his ass and he was sure Nick felt likewise. “Nicky…”

“Hmm…Ma has plenty of fancy bracelets so I know you’re not buying another one for

her,” Nick walked around Joey and admired other fancy sparklers in the display case, “and I know you don’t care too much about your hoes to get them anything
this
fancy…”

“You’re really going to beat it out of me, aren’t you?” Joey quipped.

Nick studied the fancy jewelry and saw something he might be interested in for Zerrin. She didn’t wear a lot of jewelry and when she did, they matched her eclectic style of fashion. But Nick saw a piece that would look good on her as long as she was naked and wearing a pair of stilettos. He could already visualize how beautiful she would look, with hands tied behind her back, her braids pulled back in a tight bun, kneeling down on a pillow as she orally serviced him, occasionally withdrawing from him so she can beg to have his cock back in her warm mouth.